


An Unfortunate Return

by Bolt41319



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 08:19:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16082177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bolt41319/pseuds/Bolt41319
Summary: When Daniel shows up outside of Granny's Diner asking for visitation with his son, Robin reacts in a way that Regina doesn't want to handle.Inspired by an amazing manip by EQChemistryFor Inspired By OQ Day 7 (5th Entry)(Read the notes for a background)





	An Unfortunate Return

**Author's Note:**

> A modern day AU where Daniel never died, but rather ran away from Regina and Henry.

Pour. Chug. Slam. 

“Another.”

Pour. Chug. Slam. 

The amber liquid burns as it moves down her throat but she pushes the glass back, demanding another from Granny, who is graciously quiet about the yelling going on outside her diner right now. 

“You know, Madam Mayor” Granny quips, pouring another shot of whiskey into her glass, “you could just ask for a double.”

With a raise of her eyebrow she glares at her, lifting the glass to her lips to throw back another shot. 

“Another,  _ please _ .” 

Granny’s hard glare over the rim of her glasses sends a shiver down Regina’s spine, but the burning liquid is finally doing it’s job and she wants another. No, she needs another. 

Because her current boyfriend and her ex-boyfriend are currently outside screaming at each other, and she’s not emotionally equipped to deal with them or anyone else right now. 

“What’s going on out there?”

“Daniel’s back in town.”

Granny’s glare goes from upset to downright angry, flames burning in her eyes as she looks out the window. “That bastard has no-”

“I know, Granny. He’s got no right to be here, but he is. He was sitting outside on the bench when we walked up, and Robin just- snapped. Neither of them are listening to me either. I tried to get them to stop, tried explaining to Daniel that he just needs to  _ go _ . Need to get the fuck away from here and leave Henry and I alone. But then he started pleading and Robin started getting angry and now they’re out there with David and I just couldn’t-”

Granny takes her glass and fills it to the brim with the quickly emptying bottle of Jack that she keeps hidden under the bar. “Want me to go out there and break them up? The crossbow is a little dusty but it’ll do.”

Regina chuckles as she throws back her last shot, face grimacing as the burn moves its way down her throat. “Thank you, Granny. Really. Maybe give Emma a warning call that there might be a fight, but i’ll go take care of it.” She stands from the stool at the counter, hands falling to tug her dress back down from where it shifted. “If you hear screaming, bring out that bottle for me.”

Granny laughs and gives her a nod, pushing her out the door to face the man she loves and the man she loved. 

They’re practically at each other’s throats. David is standing between them, his arm stiff to his sides to keep the men away from one another. 

“You better bloody think twice before you go near her” Robin spits, his voice a thick growl that usually makes her weak at the knees. But now it’s just protective- a protection she didn’t ask for because of a man she’d dismissed long ago. 

“What’re you going to do about it?” Daniel throws back, trying to push his way past David to swing at Robin. David yells something about acting like real men, and the two try again to shove past him to get a hit in. 

After finally deciding if she really  _ wants _ to kill one of them, she makes it down the steps. Her skin is flushed, both from the alcohol and rage running through her. 

“How  _ dare you _ .” She’s fuming now, hair tousled from the wind as it whips around her, picking up with her anger as she moves toward them. “Both of you just shut up. Honestly, who gives either of you the right to act like petulant men fighting over a damsel? I’m my own woman, and while I understand, Robin, where you’re coming from you aren’t making this any better. And Daniel,  _ you _ have no say in my life. We may share a son, but you’re nothing to him and nothing to me.”

Her chest is heaving and she can feel her blood brewing as they both stare at her in bewilderment. She calms for a moment, thanking David for keeping these two idiots from killing one another while she went in to talk with Granny. He gives her a nod, telling her that should she need anything she can always call, and makes his way into the diner. 

Regina crosses her arms and glares at them, and they look  _ rough _ . Like two schoolboys pushing and shoving, with disheveled shirts and clenched fists. 

“What do you have to say for yourselves?” 

“He’s a bloody bastard” Robin bites, his glare still fixed on Daniel. “This ass wants to ask you for visitation with Henry-”

“Visitation that I deserve, Regina! He’s my son-”

“He stopped being your son the moment you abandoned them. Who was there to hold him when he was throwing up from the stomach flu? Who rocked him back to sleep after his recurring nightmares, night after night screaming out into the darkness and shaking with fright. Who went to his first soccer game, only to watch how much he hated it and pulled him out after? Regina did.  _ I did.  _ Not you, so don’t you dare come back in here thinking you can just  _ be his fucking dad _ .”

She steps up and stops him with the curl of her fingers around his bicep. “Robin, love- stop. Please, let me.”

He pauses and turns to her, finally truly looks at her and sees the anger and fight across her own face, not only toward Daniel but him as well. He shakes his head, his hand coming up to cradle her cheek as he starts to apologize with an, “I didn’t mean-” but she stops him again. 

She leans in and grazes a light kiss to his cheek, whispering  _ ‘we’ll talk about this later’ _ into his ear. When she finally turns toward Daniel her walls are back up, spine straight and tall as she stands regally before him. 

He’s seen her like this before, usually around Daniel or her mother. She hated anyone who fought so hard for her unhappiness, rather than recognizing how truly better off she and Henry were without Daniel pushing negativity into their lives. 

Her son was happy. She was happy. And quite frankly, that was all that mattered to her anymore. 

“Daniel” she starts, and the smirk that spreads across his face makes her want to hit him. How dare he act this way, like their lives revolve around him whenever he decides it’s convenient to return. 

“Look, babe, I know I’ve been absent a lot. But I finally got myself a good job and i’ve done everything that I wanted to do. I’m ready to come back now.” 

He can’t be serious. 

Oh, oh my god. She knows that look on his face. That egotistical smirk that he gets when he thinks he’s won something, like she and her son are some sort of prize that he’d finally gotten from a claw machine. 

“You’re kidding, right?”

His face falls, and she’s hit with a burst of pride for herself. For finally standing up to the man who always came crawling back. Robin’s behind her, his hand pressed to the small of her back. No longer there to fight for her honor but to fight with her, side by side. Partners, in every sense of the way. 

“You’re ready” she continues after his silence. “That’s what you have to say to me. You’re ready. Oh excuse me, so glad you’re ready to be a father, because the last 4 years weren’t enough opportunities to be apart of your sons life. How dare you think that you can just,  _ poof _ , show up one day thinking i’d be waiting with open arms.”

He stumbles through his words, finally telling her “I thought you knew” when he can form a coherent sentence. 

“Thought I knew what? That you need to go live your life like the 24 year old bachelor you were, while I stayed at home pregnant with my son? You think I didn’t have dreams? Things I wanted to get to before 30? All those dreams melted when that beautiful baby was put into my arms. And they weren’t gone, not forever. Just put onto a backburner, so instead of going at them with myself I could do them with him. But you never understood that, did you Daniel? You only saw it for what you wanted to. Something was finally here to hold you down, and you couldn’t take it.”

She can’t help but laugh at the dumbfounded look on his face, like he can’t believe she’d have the audacity to talk to him this way, to explain to him how much she actually hates him. 

“And you know what? Thank you, for leaving. Truly, thank you. Because had you not left our son would grow up with you for a father, and boy is he blessed that you aren’t all he has to look up to. Because finally, he as Robin. Robin who picks him up from school and takes him to the park. Robin, who gives me a night off to sleep and holds Henry when he wakes up from a nightmare. He heals his wounds like he healed my heart.

If you want to meet your son, that’s fine. Great, actually. But don’t you ever,  _ ever, _ think that you’ll get any sort of custody with him. Or any alone time with him.”

Daniel looks offended, like he’s been told his favorite toy’s been taken. He finally can no longer take her up into his arms and beg for forgiveness, but has to sit and realize maybe they’d finally became happy without him. 

He goes from smug, to defeated, and then to downright angry. His skin is flushed and red, and she watches as his hands clench back into his fists. 

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer, Regina Mills. Don’t think that this is over because you finally have a boyfriend that’ll deal with you.” With that Daniel storms out of the patio at Granny’s, a growl ripping through him as he rounds the corner and kicks the trashcan on the street. 

Robins arms immediately wrap around her, tugging her into a tight hug as apologies pour from him. “I didn’t mean to make you mad, love, I swear. He just, he pisses me off. What right does that bloody bastard have to come in here and make demands like that? You’re Henry’s mum, and that’s who he needs. Not some half-ass that can’t bother to show up until it’s convenient. I can’t belie-”

She cuts him off with a kiss, slow and warm against his lips. When he pulls away her hands cradle his cheeks, and his forehead presses to hers. 

“Robin, listen. I don’t need protecting-”

“I know” he nods. 

“And I don’t need you to defend my honor. But,” she takes a deep breath, eyes meeting his. “You’re the closest thing Henry has to a father, not him. And I need to thank you for that, because I never really have. Daniel brings out the worst in me and I hate how I get around him, which is why I don’t want him near Henry. But you, you’re his dad, no matter what anyone says. So thank you, for loving me and my son. And thank you for protecting us, even when you don’t have to.”

He cups her cheeks and pull her into a deep kiss, whispering  _ you’re welcomes  _ against her lips before pulling away with a chuckle. He licks his lips slowly, eyebrow raising as he stares at her carefully. 

“So when Daniel and I were about to brawl for your honor, you were…”

She blushes, glancing over at Granny’s door before smiling back at him. “There’s a bottle in there that I  _ may _ have opened and had a shot or two from. Or four.” she grins sheepishly. 

He leans in and steals a kiss from her again, tangling his fingers with hers. “Well after all that excitement, maybe we can go into the diner and ask Granny about that mysterious bottle. “

With one final smirk at her he pulls her into the diner, thoughts of Daniel and his untimely return long forgotten. 


End file.
